Who turned out the lights?

I'm finally beginning to catch up on blogging but am back with a bit of a problem.  While I carry on talking about things already finished and photographed, I can't get a decent picture of anything that's current!  With this rubbish weather we're having, my usual light box doesn't work.  All the natural light is too blue and it's bleaching out all the colours.  Greens look blue, reds and pinks become purple.

Of course I say "light box" in the loosest of terms here.  What it usually involves is a big board balanced on my bedroom windowsill covered in a white table cloth.  There's usually such good light coming in there in the morning it makes for a great place to take pictures.  It also means I have to have a blackout blind in the summer or be woken up at daybreak (but that's another story entirely).  This is also proving problematic for getting yarn uploaded to the shop.  Trying to tell people that the rather grey looking yarn in the picture is actually a beautiful shade of apricot just doesn't wash for some reason.  So, new light box set up it is and quickly hopefully.  I think I've still got some daylight bulbs tucked away in the cupboard.  Fingers crossed they'll do the job!

Winter warmers

Brr it's cold again! and damp and wet. That must mean it's time for a new hat or two. Actually it meant new gloves too this year as I lost one half of my favourite pair of gloves and the little man seems to have grown since last year.

Apparently, so he tells me, mittens are too babyish so we settled on a compromise and I made a pair that are a cross between the two. I've seen them describes elsewhere as "glittens". They make me want to hold my hand up and say "nanu nanu". Seeing as the yarn went so far, I made him a matching hat. It's just a basic beanie but the striping in the yarn really makes it stand out. This yarn was another find from the Woolcabin at Clacton.

So how about something for me, Ruth aka Woolly Wormhead decided to launch another mystery hat KAL this winter so here's mine. I love the hat and the colour's great - kind of a petrol blue. I should have knit the smaller size as it seems to have relaxed just a little too much. In the medium size on 4mm dpn's it took just over one ball of Wendy Mode.As much as I loved it, in the end it was frog it or gift it so it nows has a new home with one of my best friends.  I'll just have to make myself another.

Now for some gloves. I've been eyeing up Julia Mueller's patterns on Ravelry for some while, she designs the most beautifully detailed glove patterns. These are one of her free patterns and probably one of the simplest but they really are the perfect fit for me. Paige brought the yarn back from the States for me last winter (Plymouth Happy if I remember rightly) and it knitted up really nicely. I have worn and worn these gloves, they are so comfortable and the pattern is really well written.  It also helps that red is one of my favourite colours.  I'm going to have to get on and knit up the red merino I span to make myself a new scarf/wrap to match them.

Lastly an actual Christmas gift.  I made a Quincy hat for my (not so) little brother.  Personally I loved it but I'm not sure he's actually used it.  Still, it's the thought that counts and I have discovered another great yarn in the process.  Stylecraft Life.  This was the chunky but I've bought myself enough of the same colour in the aran weight to make myself a new sweater.  Yes, I am making jumpers for myself this year before I make any more for anyone else.

Time flies ... again

.....and new year has already come and gone!  Add in the snow days and chaos it caused and I have no idea where the time has gone to.  Anyhow, "Happy Almost February" everyone as it seems a bit daft saying happy new year a month late.  This is just a quickie to say no the blog isn't gone and yes, I do know it needs some tidying but I just seem to have been manically busy the last few days. I have way too many pictures to post, projects to catalogue and I'm not finished being busy yet so in the meantime I leave you with a sunset totem to make you smile.

Knitting by Candle Light

I love knitting lace but over the last couple of years I've discovered that much as I like the idea of it, I don't enjoy using laceweight. I do love sock yarn though and there are so many beautiful yarns out there. I always think that it's a shame to hide them away in your shoes though. If you buy something that pretty, why not show it off?

So, this is a little something that I've been working on for a while and when the lovely ladies from my knitting group offered to test knit my latest pattern, who was I to say no? So with extra thanks to Christine for knitting and modeling the two versions pictured, I bring you my Candle Light Shawl.

I designed it to be made from one 100g skein of yarn, you know one of those pretty indie dyed ones that we all love (mine included!). Why hide it when you can wrap yourself up in it and show it off? It's quite a simple lace pattern to remember and so it's a great pattern even if you're just starting out knitting lace. Maybe I'm overdoing the enthusiasm a little but it's my pattern and I do rather like it, I hope you will too. If you want to knit it yourself you can buy the pattern for £2.50 through Ravelry. Here's a little link that should take you there, whether you're a rav user or not.

The pink version was knitted in the Natural Dye Studio Nino using 4mm needles and the pewter coloured one was made from Posh yarn Lei on 3.5mm. They're both beautiful but completely different in size. It always amazes me how much difference needle size can make to lace, personally I like to use 5mm with sock yarn as I like mine nice and open. It all comes down to personal preference though. Anyway, happy knitting :)

FO - round neck crochet cardi

Pattern: Top Down Round Yoke Cardigan by Milobo
Yarn: 8 balls of Mirage by Adriafil
Hook: 6mm

I absolutely love this cardigan and have worn it loads even with the current cold snap. (I have lots of long sleeve tshirts luckily!) The pattern itself is a bit of a strange one as you have to download and use Knitware design software to make it. The demo is free (available here) and once you start playing with it, really easy to use. Milobo walks you through a tutorial with the options she used to generate her pattern so you can make your own to fit yourself according to your tension. Once you've generated your pattern you just paste it into word (or something similar) so you can tweak it and print it. The wooden button was a charity shop find and it works really well.

This is the first time that I've use this yarn and I'm really pleased with it. It's a great colour and worked really well with the pattern. I think I'll definately be using it again, perhaps even for the little man as it feels like it's going to wear well and being machine washable is definately a bonus.

goodbye November, where did you go?

It's been a fab weekend on the knitting front with another successful weekend knitting meet for Colchester SnB. The wind might have been whistling past the front of the hall but inside was warm and cozy with plenty of tea and cake to sustain us. I finally caught up with a copy of December's Let's Knit magazine too and so managed to check out the Fibreholics article. I had to squeal in delight when I saw they'd used a picture of my yarn to promote it! How cool is that? Actually Fibreholics continues to go from strength to strength - we completely sold out in less than 10 days this time and are planning for next year already but more of that another time.

Actually it was lovely to be able to just sit and knit and gossip all day Saturday with no pressure to be up and doing which I always have at home. Other than me casting on for a pair of much need gloves for me, there hasn't been much knitty progess here at all lately as we've been knee deep in paint and wallpaper and when I've not been decorators mate, I've been in school painting and making for the various Christmas events. Hmm, a bit of a theme developing here. As I type, we've just put the finishing touches to the sitting room walls and I can safely say, I'm all painted out for the moment.

I don't know what it is about our family, we always end up decorating in the run up to Christmas. I use the royal "we" there but it's only me and mum that actually get the work done. For some reason everyone else seems to evaporate about the time that all the stuff gets brought into the house. They're quite happy to be around for the choosing and purchasing part but the actually doing side of it is apparently one step too far. I'm beginning to realise as I get older that I am far more my mother's daughter than I ever thought I was.

Sorry this is turning into a bit of an epic, slightly random but picture free post so I think I'll finish here and be back soon with some pictures. I find that having not posted very much lately I have more to document than I realised. Toodle pip and I'll see you in December, which reminds me I must find that advent calendar for the morning.

Ally Pally or bust...

It's funny, whenever I've neglected my blog for too long I always feel the urge to confess and it makes me giggle. Forgive me readers, it has been far too long since my last contribution .......... and I'm not even Catholic for goodness sake! Anyhow, this year continues to fly by. I honestly have no idea where the time is going. I now have a new internet connection - and one that actually works properly all the time too! So I really have no excuse not to post a little more often. The shop needs restocking too and I can't complain that I can't upload pictures anymore so expect a big update this week.

I made it to Ally Pally again this year and I have to say even though I had a great day, I came away feeling a little bit disappointed. Maybe it's just that my fibre tastes are moving more and more to the spinning side of things at the minute but you could really see the effect of the recession beginning to bite. I got what I wanted more or less but I was able to easily stick to the budget this year. There were several companies that I really wanted to visit but they weren't there. I think that perhaps with more and more of these yarn events happening, I Knit, Rav day not to mention Woolfest and Fibrefest, the yarn stores are being much more careful about where they spend their money.
Here's some of the Colchester knitters at the end of the day in front of the rather impressive knitted ship in the foyer. Looking at the size of some of the bags that people came out with, I was fairly circumspect in my purchases.
Roving from Piiku. On their stand they'd got some really impressive crocheted and felted mats mats made from some of this. I think this one is destined to be a table runner of some kind. I'm still deliberating at the mo. It might end up as a bag.
Jamieson and Smith shetland spindrift, enough for a pair of mittens.
and finally, sock yarn. It's fabulously red and is for a wrap/shawl to replace my ratty pashmina of the same colour. Other than some beads, in the end that's all I bought for me. Still, it;s what I wanted more or less and I certainly don't need any more sock yarn as my stash is overflowing.